Before my recent trip (for a backgammon tournament), I purchased a new (to me) 14" Chromebook because I felt like the 11.6" screen on my old one was just too small to get much work done. But even though it's
newer than the old one, it also felt
slower than the old one, for the obvious reason that it has half the RAM (4Gb v. 8Gb). So I took the smaller one on the trip, and kind of regretted doing so. Trying to get work done was really annoying.
Yesterday, Tamara had a medical procedure that required me to sit in a waiting room for an extended period so that I could drive her home (they won't release you post-anesthesia without a driver). I broke out the "new" Chromebook, let it it do its software updates, etc., and took it with me.
It performed reasonably well, and the bigger screen was a great relief to my eyes. I didn't have to put it through its full paces (writing columns, extensive editing, etc.) -- I just tracked down and bookmarked content, mostly -- but it was about a thousand times less unpleasant than the smaller screen.
Before I travel again (I've got nothing immediately planned), I may bust it open, remove the write-protect screw from the SSD, put it back together, and install a fairly light Linux distribution on it. I still like real Linux better than ChromeOS.
I may also (or instead) see if I can get it to treat my little HDMI projector as a second monitor. That would not only give me two work screens in e.g. a hotel environment, it would let me use the thing to stream the media I want to watch instead of whatever channels the hotel happens to offer.